8th International Conference “Global Peace through Emotional Literacy, Wellness Psychology of Workplace Behavior, and Effective People Management”.

The world in the first quarter of the 21st century has increasingly realized the importance and prominence of global peace and human resources to ensure the sustainability of the earth and human life.The new millennium has witnessed the worst ever human sufferings plus immeasurable damage to the environmental cover.In fact, World Peace has deteriorated for eight of the last eleven years, according to the World Peace Index, and the 2018 index shows the world is less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade. Therefore, the need to promote global peace through emotional intelligence and effective management of human resources is imperative.

Toward that end, the conscientious and eminent personalities from around the world attended an appropriate forum recently presented by World Without Anger (WWA), Nepal and Global Peace Foundation (GPF), Nepal. The two organizations jointly organized in partnership with EQ4Peace.org, USA and the National Association of Psychological Science, India (NAPS) the 8^th International Conference, “Global Peace through Emotional literacy, Wellness Psychology of Workplace Behavior and Effective People Management”, which was held on 24^th November 2018 at Quest International College, Gwarko, Lalitpur, Nepal.

This conference provided a platform for academicians, researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and students of intellectual discourse to present their ideas, research papers and innovative practices in the areas of EQ, psychology, organization, human resource management and global peace initiatives.  (see links to mediacoverage, below.)

Chief Guest Prof. Dr. Mahima Birla, Dean and Provost, Pacific Academy of Higher Education and Research University, Udaipur, in her address mentioned that such conferences are extremely helpful to inculcate among masses the values, attitudes and behaviors that support responsible global residency through creativity, innovation and a commitment to peace.

Matt Perelstein, Executive Director, EQ4Peace.org, USA, through video-conference, highlighted the role of EQ to create inner peace, interpersonal peace and social peace, ultimately leading to large-scale, sustainable world peace. Chief Advisor of WWA, Nepal, Prof. Murari P. Regmi, in his message said that vivid sensory experiences and dissociative identity disorders among young adults are rising, and they seem to have no basis in psychological reality. He stated that in such a situation, counseling and vocational training are very helpful.

In plenary sessions, conference advisory chairperson, Prof. Dr. Saedah Siraj, Peace Education, Project Director, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia discussed the issue “Building Peace Education for the Future: Make it Visible”. Prof. SubarnaBajracharya, Principal, Quest International College, Pokhara University, spoke about Management Education for Peace Building.

Dr. Dean Van Leuven, Founder and Chairman of the World Emotional Literacy League (WELL), USA, Chief Patron of WWA and a Founding Patron of EQ4Peace.org, USA, explained that the purpose of the conference was to produce anger-free world societies to make the world a better place to live in and to make life better for all people. He enlightened us with a presentation on, “Emotional Intelligence: Taking Control of Your Mind”.

The respected “Dean of International Peace Prize” (DOIPP) was awarded to Dr. AntigonosSochos, U.K., Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Bedfordshire, UK. He is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.Dr. Sochos’s award was given for his continuous hardwork and dedication to the field of Academic Peace Psychology. The prize carried a purse of 25,000NRs that was provided by long-time, generous sponsor, Gorkhas Finance Ltd.  Dr. Sochos was kind enough to donate his award to help WWA print an additional 2,000 LWA student manuals (1,000 in English / 1,000 in Nepali) for 7^th-12 graders in Nepal.

In technical sessions, 52 research papers were included from 96 authors, scholars, academicians, students and experts from 9 countries: Austria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, U.K. and USA.  All presented important research papers related to their areas of specialty such as peace psychology and positive psychology, education, global peace science, emotional intelligence and emotional literacy, human resource management, mental health, behavioral science and more.Here are the abstracts.

Conference organizing secretary, Dess Mardan (“DM”) Basnet, Founding Member and President of WWA and EQ4Peace.org VP Operations – Nepal/Asia, discussed the vision and primary activity of WWA and stated that WWA is committed to continue and expand work on this panorama, along with the international partnership with EQ4Peace.org.

To conclude the conference, the Honorable Dr. Keshav Man Shakya, Former Minister for Science and Technology, Chief Guest of the Valedictory Session, Dr. Khagendra Prasad Subedi, Joint Secretary & Chief Psychologist, Public Service commission, government of Nepal, and Dr. Vincent Luizzi, University of Texas, USA spoke about the importance of having an event specifically to discuss peace education.

Mr. Bharat Giri, Secretary General, WWA welcomed and spoke at length about the overall WWA activities, policies and challenges. The seminar ended by the Chairperson of the closing ceremony, Dr. Laxman Shakya, Vice President, WWA, who applauded the participants for their active participation in the conference.

The chief guest of the closing ceremony awarded the certificates of appreciation to the paper presenters, participants and to those who directly or indirectly extended their support and cooperation.

The conference would not have been such a grand success if the delegates, officials and the participants without whose sincere involvement and contributions, stood to gain tremendously from each other and highly enriched.

The conference ended with a resolve to re-assemble for the 9^th annual peace conference and due to popular demand, expand the format from a 1-day to a 2-day conference. A title was chosen: “World Peace through Emotional Intelligence Education (EQ/EI), Organization Management and Positive Psychology for Inner Peace, Business Success and A Better Life”,and it’s being scheduled in November 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal. WWA conferences have become a premier event in South Asia, so we hope you won’t miss out on the latest and greatest information, case studies and research on EQ and Peace Education.  We believe peace is achievable, if we all put our heads and hearts together, to create it.